Well, Hi! I’m Kris King and I’d like to welcome you to my blog. If you’ve come before, welcome back. If you’ve not been here before, welcome for the first time and I hope you come back many times.

The purpose of my blog is to connect with people in a profound way. Such a way that we’re touched, connected, and we’ve learned something together. I’m a walker, and this morning I was out walking and thinking about doing this blog today, and part of me was really nervous, and I was kind of thinking “what am I doing this for?” And I looked back at my past blog entries (which are really excellent, and I hope you look at them), but as I looked back at them, I realized that I was doing what I thought I should do instead of what I really wanted to do.

When I realized this out on my walk, I burst out laughing, because here I am, a teacher, who for the last 25 years has been teaching people to live what they know and trust and love; what they really want to do instead of what they have to do. So I kind of tickled myself this morning, and realized that what I wanted to talk with you about today is something really important to me, and is on my mind right now.

Sunday is my birthday. I turn 67 on May 9th, and I am profoundly grateful for that fact. Because, when I was 36, I had breast cancer, and my life was a mess and I didn’t know how to get out of it. So I took care of myself, I got well physically, and three years later I did the seminars that we offer, and they changed my life. I truly belief that I’m alive today and healthy and happy doing what I love to do because of what I’ve learned here at WINGS.

I’m grateful. So, today I want to talk about gratitude. Mother’s day is coming, too, we have lot’s of things colliding that are about gratitude, grace, thankfulness, maybe some forgiveness, too, around your mom (I know I had some of that to do when I was cleaning up my past). So I’m going to ask you to take a nice deep breath with me right now, so that you and I connect in breath. Do you know that the word conspire simply means ‘to breathe together’? So take a nice deep breath – and just take a moment to begin thinking about all the things in your life you’re grateful for. The things you have, not the things you don’t. The things that are right there present in your everyday life that you’re thankful for. And as you think about those, I’ll share some of mine with you.

Number one, I’m grateful that I’m talking with you right now. There’s an invisible web stretching out from my office right here in Eugene, Oregon to Japan and Germany and Russia, and I think that’s pretty amazing. So I’m thankful that I can connect with you, someone I might have never met, in a way that’s meaningful.

Another thing I’m grateful for is that when I was a kid, I felt safe in my world. I grew up in Miami, Florida when it was all tall pines and wide open spaces, and from the earliest remembering, I could go outside and be free. Free in the citrus orchards, free in the coral rock fences that people built. Free to do whatever I wanted to do in the physical world. I’m grateful for that. I remember sitting in a kumquat tree when I was about five, and eating so many kumquats I got sick. I could do what I wanted, and my mom trusted that I was safe in that world.

I’m grateful for the love of my family, my mom, my dad, my sister, my brother, and the moments that we shared growing up, and now. That I could sit with my mom when she was in her last moments of her life. I feel so grateful for that, to be present with her in that passing. I feel grateful for the love of my husband and my sons. I feel grateful that my son Matthew was in my life for 21 years; I’m sad that he’s not here now, and I’m grateful for the time that we had together.

I am so grateful to be present on this sunny day in Eugene, Oregon, where I can see the trees and the birds. The natural world has always been an inspiration to me.
I’m grateful to every participant that has come to WINGS Seminars and learned how to change their lives in a positive way, trusting what we do, trusting themselves, opening their mind to a bigger vision of who they are and what they’re capable of.
So take a moment again and breathe. Notice how you’re feeling right now as I talk to you, and the thoughts that are coming to your mind as you think about what you’re grateful for.

My list is long, and I know yours is, too. So, one of the things I’m really grateful for is my memory. Turning 67, I have so many people saying they’re having “senior moments.” I say, “Please don’t say that. Trust your memory.” So I’m thankful for that.

I’m really thankful that I’m a really good story teller. That when I have experiences in my life, that I can translate those to people in a way that they feel connected with their own stories, as well as with mine.

I think one of the things I’m really great at in my life and grateful for, is being present – right here, right now, in this moment, no matter what’s going on. And that didn’t used to be true. That didn’t used to true at all. I was reactive, defensive – I had no clue about my own power, my own presence, the impact I have on people. And I’m so thankful that in these years of learning and teaching and traveling the world, that I’ve learned to be present in the moment, appreciating the smallest things, appreciating the grandest things – whatever it is in the moment – without reservation, without judgement. To simply stop and be present. I am so grateful for that.

You may be a very busy person and you may take a lot of pride in that, and what I know is when I’m busy, for the most part I feel pretty disconnected from what’s around me. I feel important and like I’m getting a lot of stuff done, and yet… when I look back over a day that’s spent that way, I realize there was something missing, and that something was me. I wasn’t really there. I was on a mission to accomplish, which is good, but what I know is when I accomplish things and I’m present in the moment, then I enjoy it. Then I revel in it. Then I can laugh at myself and my outcome.

So how do we be grateful for everything in our life, instead of just the things that we think are the correct things to have in our life? How do we be grateful for a moment of pain, a moment of insecurity? How do we feel grateful in the moment when we hear bad news from the doctor? Well, that’s a great moment, again, to breathe and realize how precious our lives our, and that we have this moment to experience, and it’s the first time, perhaps the only time we’ll have that moment.

So gratitude is embracing the now – the now of life – and in that, realizing how precious our lives are, that we have a now. I used to think that I was one of those pieces in a big puzzle, and it didn’t really matter that I was here. But now I realize it really matters to me that I’m here, and that I be the woman that I know I want to be.

So my offering to you today is to breathe, be present, and look around for the things you’re grateful for. And when you come up against one that you go “err – not today. I am not grateful for that,” to stop, and breathe, and notice what you can be grateful for in that very thing that you just wanted to deny, to push away, because it’s a part of life just as much as you are.

Breathing together. Conspiring.

So I’ll leave you with this thought:
What if your real job is to live an extraordinary life?

This is Kris King – see you next time.